Something Like Family
by half-dark half-light wolf
Summary: As a little kid, Naruto is beaten by the villagers and locked in a cold, dark cell in the middle of winter. There he receives little food and daily beatings. But what happens when someone finally comes to free him… and that person turns the village upsi
1. Chapter 1

A small boy whimpered, tears streaming down his face as he raced down the ally, aware of the angry villagers just a few feet behind him. One of the villagers threw a sharp rock at his legs, tripping him and adding to the already numerous bruises and cuts along his body.

He skidded along the ground for a couple of feet before finally coming to a halt on a thin patch of ice. "W-wh-what d-did I do w-wong?" the three-year old boy sobbed as the group of angry villagers crowded around him. He had just gone into a pet store to look at the little puppies, but was thrown out by the store owner. The owner's yells had attracted a large crowd, which then started to beat him. They held him down for a while before he was able to break free and start running, one clear blue eye swollen shut and his short blonde hair matted in blood.

He curled his small body into a tight ball in a vain attempt to protect himself against their attacks and words.

"Demon!" one of them hissed, kicking him sharply on the back of the head.

"You little monster, tainting our village." Another man yelled, throwing broken glass at the boy.

"You filthy little demon brat, we've let you live this long, and you repay it by contaminating a shop." one of the women yelled, hatred strong in her voice.

Naruto just curled himself into a tighter ball, praying that help would come soon. "p-pwease, I-I'm s-sowy that I w-went in th-the st-store, I j-jwust wanted to pe-pet the p-pu-puppies." he cried, sobs shaking his small, thin body. As the beating continued, Naruto began to notice that his body was getting number and number. He wondered for a moment if the cold of the winter night was what was doing it, but he didn't feel cold. He actually felt warm. The villager's insults were also becoming more distant. Blackness rose up gently in front of his eyes, and he drifted away on the warm, dark cloud.

'I hope that help comes soon' was his last thought before he slipped into unconsciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

When he woke up, he was surrounded by total darkness. The air around him was bitingly cold, and the floor that he was laying on was cold and wet. Naruto raised his head groggily, trying to discern any shapes in the dark. After a few minutes of squinting and focusing his eyes, the three-year old managed to make out what looked like iron bars in front of him, with other cells and a hallway beyond the bars.

"Wh-where am I?" he whimpered softly, hot tears spilling out of his eyes.

A loud bang echoed throughout the hallway as the door swung open, spilling harsh light into the hallway. Naruto whimpered and covered his eyes against the light, trying to wipe away the tears from his eyes. He heard a loud, heavy clunking sound as someone began to walk down the hallway, their shoes echoing off the walls of the dank corridor.

The footsteps stopped directly in front of the cell that Naruto was in. He looked up cautiously, still trying to adjust his eyes to the bright light. There was a sharp screeching sound as the door to his cell was opened forcefully and something was thrown at him, hitting him in the face. The door closed with another screech, and the clunking sound retreated down the hallway to the door.

"Stupid demon brat, I don't see why we have to feed him, he's as good as dead anyway!" the woman muttered viciously as she closed the door to the hallway with a slam, once again plunging the place into almost total darkness.

Naruto blinked in the dark for a few minutes, trying to adjust his eyes to the dark once more. Feeling around tentively, he nervously picked up the thing that the woman had thrown at him and brought it up to his face. It was a sandwich. Without even bothering to care that it was now soaking wet with who knows what, he gobbled down the sandwich as fast as he could.

He crawled over to the nearest corner and curled up into a tight ball. Burying his head into his arms, he began to sob, softly at first, but growing stronger with each passing second. 'What did I do wrong this time? I know that I must have done something bad again, but I don't know what. I wish that they would tell me.' he thought miserably as he sobbed his heart out.

Suddenly, be began to shiver violently from the frigid air in the room; it was probably about 20 degrees colder where he was than it had been outside the night the villagers had chased him. His small frame shuddered violently from the intense cold as his sobs became muffled and finally subsided.

Just as the last hiccup faded, the door banged open again, and this time a large, powerfully muscled man entered the room… and he was carrying a bullwhip. He gave Naruto a leering, hate filled grin, an insane look on his face.

"So, are you ready for your punishment, demon?" he snarled softly while still giving that crazy grin, eyes burning. Naruto just whimpered and cowered.


	3. Chapter 3

A dark figure approached the gates of the village, long gray cloak flapping in the wind. The figure shuddered as the wind buffeted it and drew the cloak tighter around itself.

"Fire Country my tails! This place is just as cold as all the others, if not colder!" a male voice hissed under the hood of the cloak.

Sighing, he trudged wearily through the snow that covered the ground towards the gate.

The guards stopped him at the gate. Without a word he handed them his passport. One of the guards took it and began looking it over, while the other two at the gate stared at him suspiciously. The first guard handed back him passport, staring hard at him, then motioned for him to continue.

As soon as he was past the gate he gave a sigh of relief and withdrew a piece of paper from the pocket of his cloak. Holding the paper as steady as he could in the wind, he began to read it over carefully.

_Mission Rank: 4 Tails_

_Destination: The Village Hidden in the Leaves, Fire Country_

_Target Name: Naruto Uzumaki_

_Mission Info: Three years ago Kyuubi no Kitsune was defeated by the former leader of the Village Hidden in the Leaves and was consequently sealed inside a human child. The human who sealed him died in the process, though the kit lived through the ordeal. Upon discovery, a decree was passed among the Demon Council that the kit should have3 guards of at least 2-tails watching over him at all times to prevent his death at the hands of the villagers. _

_It has recently been brought to our attention that the group of 2-tails who were assigned to watch over the kit have failed to report their condition for an extended period of time. Upon further investigation it has been discovered that the group has been killed by ninja's of the village. Your mission is to find the kit and assess the situation from there. Please keep in mind to try to blend in as much as possible and to find the kit as soon as possible. We are unsure of what state the kit will be in when you find him or if he will be alive at this point in time. You will be given a tracker stone to assist you in your search. _

_The best of luck,_

The Elite Demon Council 

Twelve inky paw prints of various shapes and sizes at the bottom of the paper served as signatures. The boy glared forcefully at the last part of the assignment. 'The best of luck?! Are you kidding me?! I get stuck with this lame mission to go searching for someone that I don't even care about and don't even get a thank you?!' he thought, staring at the paper in disbelief.

Stuffing the piece of paper hastily into his pocket, he withdrew the tracker stone. It was about the size of a pebble, and was dark green with symbols etched all over it.

He brought the pebble close to his face, still hidden by the hood. "Naruto Uzumaki." he said quietly, and the stone lit up in response. He moved it around until the glow was at its brightest, then began walking along, constantly stopping to check the stone. After about half an hour it directed him into an old shop.

The shop was deserted and covered in dust, completely undisturbed for years except for a trail of footprints in the dust leading to a certain point on the floor, then disappearing. He crouched down by the site and moved his hand along the floor until he felt a handle. Grinning in triumph, he opened the hatch and leapt down into a well-lit room where two people, a man and a women, already sat at a nearby table. A large metal door stood at the other end of the room.

"Who are you? What do you think you are doing here?" the woman screeched at him, while the man stood up and removed a bloody whip from his side.

Naruto sat in the corner of the cell, curled into a tight ball, shivering. He had been there for a month. A schedule was quickly established. He was fed once every four days, and was whipped and beaten every day.

Naruto began to cry again, the gashes on his back throbbing and stinging. He had been sure that the Hokage would find him, but so far his hopes had been in vain. He had nearly frozen to death the night before, when the temperature plunged another 30 degrees.

He had seen something like this happen to another kid once. But the kid was found within days, because his mom and dad had refused to quit searching, refused to give up. 'I'll probably never be found, because I don't have a mommy or daddy to do that for me.' he thought miserably, his crying subsiding.

A creaking sound filled the hallway as the door at the end of the hallway swung open gently, filling the place with light. Naruto cowered and began to whimper.

'But I already got punished today!' he wailed inside his head. 'Am I going to be punished two times a day now?' He didn't think that he would be able to survive that.

The figure at the end of the hall walked quietly down the hall and stopped in front of his cell. Naruto made a whimpering sound and tried to scoot farther back as the strange figure swung the cell door open.

"Do not be afraid. I am here to help you, not hurt you. My name is Hiro. I've been sent here to help you." the boy, now Hiro, said very slowly and clearly. Hiro pulled back the hood of his cloak slightly as he crouched down on his heels to reveal dark orange eyes with thick slit pupils. He grimaced slightly as his hand landed in something. He didn't even want to guess what it was... 

Hiro studied the boy, Naruto, carefully from his crouched position, shocked. He was only wearing some orange shorts with an oversized black tee shirt with an orange swirl in the middle. His hair and body were caked in blood and grime, and he could see that he was covered in vicious gashes. Naruto began shivering uncontrollably, tears trickling silently down his face. The movement brought Hiro out of his thoughts.

He stared at the kit emotionlessly. He couldn't care less what became of the kit, or how it was feeling, but he still had a mission to do. If the kit died of cold after he had found him, the others would never let him live it down, and the Council would be furious with him. He could just hear their ranting now…

He looked at him calmly and gave a soft commanding bark. _'Come.'_

Naruto stopped crying and looked at him in surprise as he gave the same bark again, this time stronger. _'Come!'_ He heard it somewhere in the back of his mind and began to creep forward, sniffling. He gave the command/bark one more time. Without even thinking, Naruto scrambled towards him and threw himself into his arms, sobbing.

Hiro jumped in surprise. He didn't want the kit anywhere near him… he wouldn't even be here if he could have avoided this mission. "How long have you been here?" he asked him in a cool, neutral voice.

"I-I don't know…" he sobbed, clinging to his arms.

He sighed and detached him firmly from himself. "Don't worry, I'm going to take you someplace safe now." he said grudgingly, wishing that he could have gotten a better mission.

"Oh, are you?" a cold, insane voice asked from behind him. It was the man and woman again, though this time the woman held the knife. Naruto watched in horror as the woman plunged the knife into the back of Hiro's shoulder, and the tip reappeared through the front of his shoulder.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Thank you to all of my reviewers! And thanks to ironhide 11 for the advice about changing the rating. I'm going to do that, though it's mostly for safety. And now, on with the story!

Last time

"Don't worry, I'm going to take you someplace safe now." he said grudgingly, wishing that he could have gotten a better mission.

"_Oh, are you?" a cold, insane voice asked from behind him. It was the man and woman again, though this time the woman held the knife. Naruto watched in horror as the woman plunged the knife into the back of Hiro's shoulder, and the tip reappeared through the front of his shoulder._

Hiro turned his head around casually. "Was that supposed to hurt?" he asked softly in a deadly voice, eyes glowing with killing intent. "Because if it was, you're gonna regret that."

Hiro stepped forward, the blade sliding out of his shoulder neatly. The blade hissed and melted where Hiro's blood covered it. Turning to face the woman, he grinned at the stunned look on her face, and raised both fists.

Naruto saw a slight blur over his head, and recoiled at the sight that now met his eyes. Hiro was standing there with both arms stretched out, his hands pushed through the couple's chests… and their hearts in his hands. Hiro slowly moved his fists back. As soon as his hands were out of their chests, they both fell to the ground, dead. He looked at the blood running in rivulets down his hands curiously for a second, then dropped the hearts with a slight squelching sound and glared at the bodies in disgust. Stepping forward, he wiped his hands clean on their clothes, grimacing.

His hands now clean, he turned to face Naruto without much interest. "Right, now that I've got you, we have to go to wherever your leader is and figure out a plan from there." He reached out and picked up Naruto by the back of the shirt, tucking him under his cloak and out of sight.

Pausing to give the bodies a good kick, he turned on his heel and walked down the hallway, his footsteps echoing slightly. He stepped into the well-lit room again, blinking his eyes to readjust to the harsh light, then trotted up the stairs and out of the hatch door.

Pausing to pull the cloak over his face again so that no part of him was visible, he took one last look around the deserted shop before stepping outside. It was then he realized that he had no clue where to go.

He gave a weary sigh and reached inside his cloak, moving Naruto roughly to one side, and pulled out the tracker stone again. "Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves." Hiro said, praying that next time he would get a better mission.

The stone lit up again, and he followed it for a while until it led him to a huge tower. Hiro raised an eyebrow at the sight of the tower, then shrugged and walked inside.

"Hello, and welcome to the Hokage Tower. How can I help you?" an extremely perky and polite secretary asked him as he walked in the door.

Hiro made a mental note to destroy this secretary later for being so unnaturally happy. But for now, he just ignored her and continued to walk until he stood outside a large door. He vaguely debated on knocking, then decided against it. Politeness just didn't suit him. Instead he just shoved the door open with a loud bang, waking up the person who had been using a mountain of paperwork as a pillow.

He strode up to the desk, ignoring the glare that he was receiving. "I think this is yours." he commented dryly, pulling Naruto out from under his cloak and dropping him unceremoniously on the desk.

The Hokage looked shocked. Naruto looked around, dazed, then saw the Hokage. "Old man!" he shouted, launching himself onto the Hokage in a hug.

Hiro watched emotionlessly as the Hokage looked at Naruto in shock.

"Naruto?" the Hokage nearly shouted in disbelief. "I thought that you were dead!"

"Well he wasn't." Hiro said, looking around the office, unimpressed with the man in front of him. "He was being held captive by two crazed lunatics in an underground prison. Both of those people have been disposed of. How long has he been missing?"

"About a month." the Hokage replied, setting Naruto down on the floor and turning to look at Hiro. "Who are you and how did you find Naruto?"

"His name is Hiro!" Naruto piped up, earning him a glare from Hiro.

"I found him because it was my misfortune to be given a mission from the Council to find him. I used a tracker stone to locate him." Hiro answered the rest of the Hokage's question.

"Council?" the Hokage asked, looking confused.

Hiro sighed in annoyance. Didn't these humans know anything?! "The Elite Demon Council." he said slowly, sarcasm heavy in his voice. Ignoring the confused look still on the Hokage's face, he continued, hoping to get the mission over with as soon as possible. "Is there anyone in the village who can be a proper guardian to him and protect him?"

"Er… eh… well, not exactly.." the Hokage muttered, embarrassed to admit this.

Hiro just shook his head in annoyance. "I'll take that as a solid no. In that case, you and Naruto will have to come with me. We will appear before the Elite Demon Council, and they will assign a proper guardian to him." That said, Hiro drew another, larger stone out of his pocket. This one was blood red, and had more symbols than the green one.

"This is a transport stone. It can take us almost anywhere, and that is how we will be getting to the Council. Both of you put you hand on it." Hiro said.

Naruto bounded forward and grabbed the stone, the Hokage touching it a lot less willingly.

"Right." Hiro muttered, staring at the stone in concentration. The stone began to glow. "The Elite Demon Council!" Hiro commanded.

All three of them disappeared in a blinding flash.


	5. Chapter 5

With a bright flash, Naruto, Hiro, and the Hokage reappeared in a long, dark hallway. Hiro stood up from his crouched position and put the transport stone back into his pocket while Naruto and the Hokage looked around.

The hallway was very long, made with a dark wood that seemed to absorb what little light there was. The place was huge, with high, sloping ceilings, and it was ridiculously wide. It was very dimly lit by a few candles that flickered and gave off a thin, sickly light from where they were positioned in their holders on the wall. The floors and wooden walls were unnaturally smooth and polished to the point where you could see your own reflection.

The Hokage looked unnerved by the place, while Naruto just looked confused.

"This way." Hiro said, walking swiftly down the hallway, cloak billowing behind him. Naruto scampered after him, and the Hokage followed him more slowly.

They walked down the hallway for about ten minutes. The Hokage was just starting to wonder how long this hallway was when they rounded a broad corner. The Hokage and Naruto stopped short.

In front of them was the biggest door that they had ever see. It was as tall and wide as the Hokage Tower, made of a strange reddish-gray material and heavily engraved. But that wasn't why they stopped short. There was a weird blood red light coming out from under the door…

"C'mon!" Hiro snapped, standing at the front of the door.

"How aw we gonna get in?" Naruto asked, running over to stand next to Hiro by the door.

Hiro stared at the three-year old scornfully, a little annoyed that he hadn't even mastered the 'r' sound enough to pronounce the word 'are'. He reached out and grabbed one of the engravings (A/N: the engravings jut out and are huge) and pulled. A smaller, human sized door swung open. Hiro stalked through the door, muttering about how humans were too stupid to even notice things like doors, Naruto and the Hokage following him through the doorway.

Naruto and the Hokage stopped and looked around in awe. It was a huge circular room made of the same wood as the hallway, but with a couple more candles.

Naruto's eyes were drawn to the center of the room. Sitting on a raised platform, and explaining the enormous size of the place, were twelve huge demons.

Twelve pairs of eyes flickered over to the newcomers. The Hokage took an unconscious step back, staring warily at the demons. One of the demons let out a harsh chuckle at the Hokage's reaction.

All twelve of the demons were different animals, and gave off a soft reddish glow, the same glow that they had noticed before. The one in the middle, a fox, seemed to be the oldest one; he was going gray around the muzzle. His reddish-orange eyes narrowed as they focused on Naruto, and then he grinned, showing long, deadly fangs longer than swords.

Naruto backed away, terrified, and tried to hide behind Hiro, clinging to his leg. Hiro snarled and pushed Naruto off of him, sending him flying to land flat on his back.

"Don't touch me!" Hiro snarled at him, eyes burning with rage from beneath his hood. Without another word he stalked towards the demons, pulling off his cloak as he went, while Naruto sat up slowly. Climbing stiffly and painfully to his feet due to his wounds, he looked at the demons again. The demon fox grinned at him again, but this time he didn't flinch away, but stared the demon straight in the eye. The demon nodded approvingly.

Naruto turned to see what Hiro looked like under the cloak. His hair was gray with black streaks running through it, and orange eyes with fat slit pupils. He was average height, but sturdily built. He was wearing a long sleeved shirt and long pants made out of tanned deerskin. Four pale gray fox tails with black tips and pale red fox ears with dark gray tips completed his look. Hiro's tails stayed absolutely still behind him. Only the fact that his ears tilted slightly back showed that he had any respect for the huge demons in front of him.

"Alright, I brought the kit back like you told me to." Hiro said irritably, one of his tail tips twitching. "His leader admitted that he couldn't keep the kit safe, so I brought him back here so that you could assign someone to watch him." Hiro glared off to one side, still annoyed at having to do this. 'Poor sap, I wonder whose going to get the chore of watching after the brat…' Hiro wondered, but then promptly decided that he really didn't care.

The giant fox demons eyes narrowed at Hiro's disrespectful tone. "Very well…" he said in a voice like an avalanche, "then you can watch him."

Hiro froze, eyes going wide in horror.


	6. Chapter 6

"W-WHAT?!?!?!" Hiro yelped, staring at the giant fox in pure horror.

"You heard me." growled the fox, one of his tail tips twitching.

"B-but why can't someone else do it?!" Hiro howled, ears flicking back in panic. He desperately tried to think up a way to get out of it. "Why don't you have…" he trailed off, trying to think of who he disliked a lot, or at least enough to suggest this job for. "Arisu!" he yelled, remembering the name of a female fox demon. To say that they didn't get along was a huge understatement, and Hiro would just LOVE to see her get stuck with a lame mission like this, especially since it would probably be such a long one. The vixen (female fox) might be gone for months, or maybe even years! It was his dream come true…

"Arisu?" the fox questioned slowly, eyes narrowing.

"Yeah! She'd be great for the job!" Hiro snatched at the chance, sensing that the great fox demon was considering what he said. "I mean, I would have no clue how to raise a kit, but Arisu watches over other fox's kits all the time!" he said eagerly, deciding to milk this for all it was worth.

The giant fox nodded in agreement. "Very well then."

Hiro felt relief sweep through him. He wouldn't be stuck watching the brat after all! But the giant fox hadn't finished.

"Arisu shall be assigned to this mission with you. You shall both raise the kit together, since you seem so sure that you won't be able to do it on your own." The fox said, and then flicked one of his nine tails. Instantly, another, much smaller fox with three tails appeared next to him. "Go and find Arisu. Tell her that I have a mission for her and to be here in the next five minutes." He growled. The smaller fox yipped in reply and dashed off at an unnatural speed.

Hiro felt all of his relief vanish. This couldn't be happening. He wanted to howl in misery. Not only was he stuck watching the brat, but now he had to spend that time with someone he hated!

"So Hiro is gonna be like my daddy?" Naruto squeaked, grinning.

"NO! I AM NOT GOING TO BE YOUR DADDY!!!!!!!!!!" Hiro roared at the top of his lungs.

The giant fox ignored him and nodded at Naruto, who gave a squeal and began to run around at high speed. Hiro snarled in frustration and reached out, grabbing Naruto by the back of the shirt and bopping him sharply on top of the head, ignoring his yelp of protest.

"Stop that!" he snarled, glaring at Naruto. "You look like some kind of hyperactive squirrel! If I have to put up with that every day, I'll go insane!!!"

"Hang on!" The Hokage spoke up, hands raised in protest. "How am I supposed to explain this to the villagers? They're not exactly fond of demons. And the ninja of my village will certainly notice if two demons are walking around the city!"

Hiro glanced up at him, Naruto still dangling by the back of his shirt from his hand. "So then don't tell them." he said smoothly, voice cold. "And I seem to recall that your village had a large number of people dressed in black cloaks and masks running around. So just give us some of those and we'll be fine." he dropped Naruto on his bottom.

The Hokage glared at him. "The people who wear those are the ABNU Black ops (A/N no clue if I said that right…) and have earned the trust and respect of the village through hard work and loyalty to the village. It is something that is earned, not given."

Hiro threw his hands up in exasperation. "So then give us a test! But unless you want to see the brat killed by a mob or something, you'll just have to deal with it you old goat!" Hiro paused, considering. "And I apologize to all of the goats that I may have just insulted."

The Hokage was brought up short by the comment about the mob. As much as he hated to admit it, it was true. No ninja in his village would willingly protect Naruto. He glared at Hiro. "Fine." He muttered. "But if you put one toe out of line…" he didn't bother to finish his threat.

Hiro opened his mouth to retort, but was cut of as with a soft grating sounded from behind him as the door that they had come through opened. 'Let the torture begin!' Hiro thought, groaning in misery as the fox who had run off and another person slipped through the door.

The fox trotted forward. "Ok boss, I got her." He said cheerfully. The giant fox nodded, and the smaller one disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The other demon walked forward cautiously, looking at each person in the room until her eyes landed on Hiro, instantly narrowing. "Hiro." The other person said coolly.

"Arisu." Hiro snapped, his voice even colder.

Naruto leaned around Hiro to see what the new person looked like. She had slightly dark yellow eyes, with slit pupils like Hiro's, except a bit thinner, but with similar fox ears. Her hair was dark blue and ended just below her shoulders, while her 5 tails swayed in constant motion behind her back as though caught in a breeze. The tails and fox ears themselves were a very dark blue, with light silvery gray tips. Her clothes were pretty much the same as Hiro's, except they were made out of gray rabbit fur. She looked like she was about the same age as Hiro, 15 or 16.

Hiro glared at her with pure loathing, and she glared back with equal dislike.

"You have a mission for me?" Arisu asked, still glaring at Hiro as though hoping to burn a hole through him.

"Yes. Your assignment is to raise the kit with your partner to prevent the kit's death." The giant fox rumbled, while the other demons shifted slightly.

"Kit?" Arisu asked, looking around in confusion.

"This one, stupid." Hiro snapped, picking Naruto up by the back of the shirt and waving him around carelessly before dropping him again.

Arisu raised an eyebrow. "Either that kit is very good a human disguises; and by good I mean scary good; or that's a human." She said, looking at the head fox with a bemused expression.

The giant fox nodded. "He is a human, but he has one of ours sealed inside of him." He shot Arisu a swift look.

Instantly understanding dawned on her face. "Kyuubi." She murmured softly. Even Hiro bowed his head in respect at the name. The fox nodded calmly. Arisu turned to look at Naruto with new eyes. Naruto just looked confused.

"What?" he asked, eyes squinting in confusion.

"You'll find out when you're older." The giant fox rumbled, sweeping his tails dismissively.

"So who am I working with?" Arisu asked, completely ignoring Hiro.

The giant fox motioned towards Hiro. "You'll be working with Hiro."

Arisu stared at the fox for a few seconds, speechless. "Is that a joke?" She turned to face the fox. "Am I being punished for something?!" she asked weakly, giving him a pleading look to say that this was just a cruel joke.

"I wish!" Hiro snapped at her.

A fierce, deadly rumble suddenly shook the room, sounding like an avalanche. Dust shook free of the rafters and floated down to settle on the ground. Everyone turned to look at the source of the noise, incredulous expressions firmly in place. For a second, everyone was silent.

Arisu was the first to break the silence. "WAS THAT YOUR STOMACH?!?!?!"

The others turned to look at the now deeply blushing Naruto. "Sowwy. I'm weally hungwy."

"Apparently." Arisu murmured, still shocked.

"And the first thing that you have to do," the fox rumbled, not giving her another chance to protest, "is feed the kit and give it a bath." His nose wrinkled up in disgust as he looked at the muck and grime covering Naruto.

Arisu glared at the fox for a minute before bowing her head in defeat at the unyielding sternness in the fox's eyes. She gave a long, pitiful sigh, hoping to at least send the giant fox on a guilt trip, a skill that thankfully most females have. 'Success!' she cheered in her mind as the fox's ears drooped back slightly.

"All right, Hiro, you take him to get a bath, and I'll go and get us some…" her voice died off as she turned around, "lunch." she finished. Hiro wasn't in the room anymore. She turned to look at the giant fox. "Where did Hiro go?" she asked, looking annoyed.

"He ran away about a minute ago."

"Great." Arisu muttered sarcastically. "C'mon you two, follow me then." She added to Naruto and the Hokage, walking to the back of the room, where another door was.

She swung the door wide open, spilling harsh, bright light into the darkened room. "Welcome to the Demon Realms."

The Hokage squinted out the door looking shocked and amazed at what he was seeing. "It's…"


	7. Chapter 7

**LAST TIME**

_She swung the door wide open, spilling harsh, bright light into the darkened room. "Welcome to the Demon Realms."_

_The Hokage squinted out the door looking shocked and amazed at what he was seeing. "It's…"_

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"…perfect." The Hokage finished, staring around with wide eyes. And it was. The sun shone down brightly from a clear, almost cloudless blue sky to reveal endless, rolling green hills, with a huge forest off in the distance. Mountains towered to their right, shimmering waterfalls visible even from where they were standing. A soft, gentle breeze blew, rustling the rich green grass, bringing the air down to the perfect temperature.

But that wasn't why it seemed so incredibly perfect. No, it was the aura of absolute _peace_ and _happiness_ that seemed to hang on the air like a comforting blanket that made the place like it was. The picture was completed by the demons walking calmly around at random intervals. A group of young wolves, bigger than houses, scampered around at a distance cheerfully, tails wagging, while their pack watched over them with warm, gentle eyes. A cat demon and a badger demon sat a few hundred yards away from where Naruto and the Hokage were, grooming each other's fur and talking in a completely friendly manner.

Arisu turned to look at Naruto and the Hokage in amusement. "Well what did you expect? Complete chaos?" she asked, eyes dancing in amusement. "We've lived in peace for quite a while now."

Her hand flicked out as something came sailing through the door, catching it. She held up a small backpack. "Clothes for him." She explained, motioning towards Naruto. "He'll need new clothes. There's no hope for saving the ones that he's wearing."

Her ears suddenly twitched. "The head fox wants to talk to you about our arrangements for staying at your village." She murmured to the Hokage, motioning towards the door. "I'll go and get the kit some food and a bath."

The Hokage gave the land one last look before turning around and walking into the room again. As soon as he entered the door closed again, completely sealing off all sounds from the outside.

"Open the vent next to the door." The fox rumbled, motioning with his tail towards the door. Feeling confused, the Hokage obeyed and slid the vent open.

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Arisu watched the Hokage walk in the door before turning to look at Naruto. He looked back up at her cautiously. Suddenly a huge grin appeared on her face and she swept Naruto up in a tight hug.

"YOU ARE SO CUTE!!!!!" she yelled, hugging him tightly while jumping up and down. "cute, cute, CUTE!!!!!!!!!

Naruto gaped up at her, eyes wide. "Wha?"

Arisu set him down and gave him a completely friendly smile. "I'm sorry that I had to act like I didn't care that much before, but I can't let the old fox think that I'm going soft or anything. I was wondering if I could get anything more out of it, like a better home for us to live in, if I pouted a bit."

Naruto looked up at her curiously. "So you don't hate me?"

A shocked look appeared on Arisu's face. "No, of course I don't hate you!" she rushed to assure him. Her tails waved behind her to emphasize her words.

"What's your name anyway?" she asked.

"Naruto." He replied shyly, not looking her in the eye.

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A huge grin slid over the fox's face as Arisu's yells of 'cute' echoed around the room through the vent. "Knew it." He chuckled, swinging one of his tails over to slide the vent shut, cutting off the sound from the outside.

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Arisu looked over her new charge critically. "Hmm…" she murmured, glancing him over. "You don't mind if you get a bath before you eat, do you? The scent of blood might attract some of the other demons…"

Naruto squeaked in fear and glanced around nervously, half expecting a demon to come out and eat him on the spot.

Arisu noticed his panicked expression. "Oh no, they wouldn't want to hurt you! They would just want to see where the blood was coming from. You know, in case someone was hurt and needed help."

Calming down slightly, Naruto nodded, pretending to understand. He just couldn't get the image of blood thirsty demons out of his head. "Ok." He said, craning his head back to try and see her face.

"Ok then. We'll just…" her voice trailed off at the end and she looked at him doubtfully. "Um, do you mind riding on my back? It will take too long to get to the hot-springs walking."

Naruto trotted over to her and scrambled onto her back in reply, wrapping his arms tightly around her neck.

Arisu gave a slight choking sound at the sudden pressure on her neck and reached back, gently loosening his hands. "Ready?" she called back while Naruto buried his face into the crook of her neck, hiding his eyes.

He nodded against her shoulder, clinging tightly. Arisu started out at an easy lope, gradually increasing her pace into a full out sprint, heading towards the mountains. Naruto just buried his head closer as the wind slapped against them viciously like a raging storm.

A few minutes passed like this before he was aware that the wind was softening and it felt like they were moving slower before stopping completely. Lifting his head, he saw that they were at the foot of the mountains. A thick, hot fog hung over the area. Arisu set him down gently, scanning the area intently. He could see the shimmer of a hot spring just beyond some rocks ahead.

"Ok," she said, grabbing the pack off of her back. "I'll just give you the new clothes and then after you take you bath you can put…them…..on." Her voice faltered at the end as she drew a familiar orange jumpsuit out of the pack. Her eye twitched. 'OH. MY….' Her thoughts scrabbled desperately to block out the image before her. She wanted to curl up into a ball, wrap her tails firmly around her, and start wailing like a kit.

Just barely managing not to, she handed the suit to the kit with a grimace. "I am so sorry about that…" she muttered, eying the suit in fear.

"I like it!" Naruto chirped happily, and Arisu gave him a horrified look, wondering what exactly was going through his mind.

Before she could ask, he grabbed the suit and pelted off towards the hot spring. A loud splash echoed through the area. Sighing, Arisu sank down to rest against a nearby tree, closing her eyes to block out the last of the sight. Her ears twitched as she heard the yelps and squeals from the hot springs.

About ten minutes later she realized that the sounds had stopped. She opened her eyes cautiously to see the kit standing in front of her, orange suit blaring.

Just managing not to grimace, she stood up stiffly, shaking some leaves from the tips of her tails. "Right, now let's go and get you some-" THUMP.

Arisu leapt into the air, fur on her tails bristling and fluffing out. Naruto yelped a fell back on his butt as a dead deer landed in front of them, its legs splayed. His eyes went wide with horror, tearing up.

A dark shape landed silently beside the deer. Arisu instantly calmed down, her tails smoothing out, before getting an angry look on her face. "Where were you?!" she snapped at the shape. The shape, Hiro, bristled.

Hiro glared at her. "I was getting food for the kit, DUH!" he snarled at her.

Arisu snapped up straight at this. She gave him a weird look. "Why?"

"Because the brat was hungry of course." He snapped, ears twitching.

A smile appeared on her face. "I thought that you didn't care about him." She teased, eyes sparkling with laughter.

"I don't!" Hiro snapped back, a slightly desperate not entering his voice. "I just wasn't going to put up with that brats stomach growling like that all day."

Arisu just grinned even wider. "Sssuuurrreeee." She said, trying not to laugh. "Well, that saves me the trouble of hunting I guess…"

Hiro glanced over towards Naruto, then froze, a look of panic appearing on his face. "Um, Arisu?"

She turned around swiftly to see what he was looking at, then froze too.

Naruto was still sitting on the ground where he had fallen, tears pouring from his eyes as he gazed at the dead deer. Silent sobs shook his small body.

"Why is he crying?!" Hiro asked in a completely panicked voice.

"I think… I think that he's sad about the deer…" Arisu murmured, keeping her eyes pinned on Naruto. One of her tails flicked out and wrapped around him, scooping up the little boy and setting him down softly beside her. Instantly she picked him up and cradled him close. Hiro just sat there, frozen with panic.

"It's ok. I promise, it's ok." She murmured softly in a tight voice, trying to comfort the kit. Hiro leapt to his feet and dragged the deer off into some nearby trees, glaring at the ground as he went.

"Why d-did he ha-have t-to kill it?" Naruto sobbed.

Arisu raised an eyebrow. "We have to eat you know. The meat from that deer is no different from what you eat at your village."

Naruto stopped sobbing, but the tears kept on flowing.

"The deer didn't feel any pain. We are very quick when we hunt, and we only take what we need. Nothing goes to waste." She added, and the tears stopped coming, though he still looked horrified.

A noisy trampling announced Hiro's return. He carried three slabs of meat in his hands, all of them cleaned of any blood. Without a word he gathered charka in his mouth and breathed on the meat, cooking them instantly.

"Show-off." Arisu said, accepting her piece of meet with a nod of thanks and biting into it without another word and tearing off a piece with her fangs.

Naruto tried to do the same, but the meat was too tough. Without even bothering to look at him, Hiro grabbed the meat and lifted it into the air, while Arisu took a lazy swipe at it with her claws, cutting it into strips.

Naruto looked at them with wide eyes before devouring the meat in a matter of minutes. Arisu and Hiro both stood up, having finished their meal also.

"C'mon, lets get back to the Council." Arisu said, scooping up a very drowsy Naruto and putting him onto her back. The last thing he remembered before falling asleep was his head resting on her shoulder as she ran, with Hiro running right beside her in perfect sequence.


	8. Chapter 8

Naruto felt like he was floating on a warm cloud. Not bothering to open his eyes he burrowed deeper into the warmth.

"Wake up. It's time to go." A voice said, sounding very far away.

With a sinking heart Naruto realized that he must still be in the cell and that being rescued was just a dream. That was the same thing that was said to him before every beating. The voice sounded again, and he shut his eyes tighter. 'I don't want to wake up. It's safe and warm here. I don't want to go back to the cell and the cold.' He thought, trying to sink deeper into the warmth to keep from being dragged out.

"WAKE UP YOU STUPID BRAT!!!!!!!!!" a voice roared in his ear as he was roughly jerked away from the warmth, dangling from the scruff of his neck.

His eyes shot open in alarm to see a pair of smoldering orange eyes glaring fiercely into his own eyes with open hostility.

"HIRO!!!!!" he yelled, launching himself at the unsuspecting face and clinging to it tightly. He heard Hiro give a muffled shriek.

"Get him off get him off get him off!!!!!" Hiro shrieked in a very muffled voice, running around the room in a frenzied panic with Naruto attached to his face, running into various objects because he couldn't see.

The head fox just sighed and shook his head in annoyance while the Hokage just stared in shock.

Arisu: V.V

Looking faintly annoyed but mostly amused, she reached out as Hiro ran by her again and plucked Naruto off of his face gently.

It took Hiro a few seconds to notice that Naruto wasn't attached to his face anymore. Skidding to a stop, he turned to give Naruto a murderous death glare, taking a few menacing steps towards him.

Arisu gave Hiro a scorching death glare, her tails bristling. Moving Naruto behind her, she gave Hiro a low growl, eyes flashing. Shockingly, Hiro hesitated, then gave an annoyed huff and stalked a little bit away. Arisu relaxed a bit.

"Anyway… "the Hokage started, "before you woke up, we were discussing the scheduale that those two would have as ANBU black ops for the village." The Hokage said, motioning towards Arisu and Hiro.

"We came up with the decision that since it is originally Hiro's mission, he will look after the kit five days a week, and Arisu will take the weekend shifts. On the days that you are not watching the kit, you will be doing ninja work with others. The work hours are from 8 am to 4 pm." The fox added, the red glow from him seeming to intensify.

Arisu nodded, and Hiro looked annoyed, but neither of them complained.

Without a word the Hokage, Naruto, Hiro, and Arisu gathered in a tight circle as Hiro drew out the transport stone. All of them reached out to touch it.

Hiro glanced around quickly before looking at the stone. "Village Hidden in the leaves, Hokage's office." He commanded.

Naruto watched in surprise as Arisu whipped out something from her pocket at the last second before the light dragged them away. He heard a sharp beep, and watched as, almost in slow motion, a pool of green paint cascaded down from the roof onto the head fox, turning his fur neon green.

"ARISU!!!!!" he roared, blinking paint out of his eyes, but it was too late, as with a flash they reappeared in the Hokage's office.

"Hehehe." Arisu snickered, putting the remote control back into her pocket, grinning. "He should be thankful that I didn't use pink paint." Hiro shuddered.

The Hokage was already at his desk, searching for someplace that they could stay. Arisu settled down into one of the chairs and stared out the windows at the city, while Hiro paced around. Naruto ran around after Hiro pestering him with questions.

After ten minute Hiro was ready to pull his hair out. He had answered one question from Naruto, and now he wouldn't stop asking 'why'?. Arisu was looking through the mask choices that they had to wear to be ANBU. Grinning, she pulled out a dark blue fox mask.

Hiro marched up and snatched a blood red fox mask out of the pile, completely ignoring the cat, seal, and various other animal masks.

Both of them pulled cloaks out of a pile, pulling them on to see if they would fit. By the time they had gotten everything together, the Hokage had found two apartments next to each other for them to stay in.

Slipping on their new cloaks and masks, they followed the Hokage as he led them through the village, Naruto riding on Arisu's back again.

"Where are we gonna live?" Naruto asked happily, tugging on Arisu's hair though the cloak.

Arisu winced as she lost some of her hair before replying. "Wherever the Hokage wants us to live." She said, having no clue where they were going. She flinched as a group of genin ran past her, in fast pursuit of a cat. She was in no way comfortable around so many humans.

Hiro was better off than her, having been here before.

"That's the Ninja Academy. Naruto will be starting there to learn the basics of reading and writing in a couple of months. He'll only have half days there until he's six." The Hokage said, pointing to a large building on their right. Arisu and Hiro both pricked up their ears under the hoods, listening to the yells of kids.

A little ways away from the Academy, they turned into a complex of normal apartment, neither big nor small. He led them up to the second floor and gave each of them a key. "These are for you apartment." He explained, and launched into an explanation for what would be in the apartment and stuff like that. Hiro tuned him out after the first few second while Arisu listened carefully.

As soon as the Hokage had finished talking, he walked away quickly, and Arisu handed Hiro Naruto. Before he could complain she darted into her apartment, taking the one closest to the stairs. The door closed with a soft click, leaving Hiro standing there blinking in confusion with Naruto held under one arm like a football.


	9. Chapter 9

**Authors Note**

I am so sorry that it's been so long!!!!! Here's the next chapter and I'll try to update as soon as I can, although I can be persuaded to update faster with more reviews. I'm sorry for the delay!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the Naruto characters.

Claimer: I do own Arisu and Hiro though!

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Hiro flinched as a bright light intruded his much wanted darkness, as well as a weight on his chest.

"Hiwo, wake up!" a small voice said in his ear, poking him repeatedly.

"Go away." He mumbled, turning over to escape the bright light. Not that he could escape the voice though.

"Hiwo, it's time to get up!!!" the voiced whined in his ear, tugging at his tails and hair. After a minute the thing stopped tugging on him, and he felt a weight disappear from where it had been on his chest. With a sigh of relief he relaxed and started to drift back off to sleep.

"Hey, wake up!" a voice said in his ear, this time a different voice. He just ignored it.

"Fine then." The voice muttered darkly.

Hiro had a second to wonder what the change in tone was for before something very cold and wet hit him full in the face.

"AAAHHHH!!!!" he yelled, bolting up right and rubbing his eyes to try to get the water out. Sopping wet and glaring furiously, he saw Arisu standing a few feet away from him holding a huge bucket, while Naruto laughed at him from behind her. She was already dressed in her new ANBU cloak, though the hood wasn't pulled up yet. Her mask hung from one hand.

"Glad to see that you finally decided to join the land of the living." Arisu said sarcastically, setting the bucket down near the doorway.

Hiro ground his teeth together and moved into a half crouched position, ready to kill her.

"Is youw shoulder huwting you? Naruto asked innocently from where he was standing, causing Hiro to freeze in mid crouch. Arisu's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"His shoulder? Why would his shoulder be hurting him?" she asked softly, glaring dangerously at the now cowering fox demon.

"It's nothing, some wacko lady just got me a bit with a knife!" Hiro shouted in panic, waving his hands in front of him defensively.

"Let me see where you got hurt." Arisu said calmly, eyes darkening.

Hiro sat perfectly still for a moment before bolting for the door. "No way!" he shouted back at her, not noticing the rug on the floor. With a yelp of surprise he tripped over it and went sprawling.

Arisu sighed and went over to kneel down next to him, pinning him with her tails, while Naruto laughed at the sight of the now defenseless fox.

"LET ME UP!!!!!" Hiro yelled try to squirm away. Arisu just ignored him.

"Which shoulder was hurt Naruto?" she asked.

"That one." Naruto said, pointing to his left shoulder. Arisu pulled down the shirt he was wearing a bit to reveal a faint pink line where the knife had hit. Naruto gaped in surprise.

"We heal a lot faster than you do." Arisu said casually, standing up and releasing Hiro, who glared at her. "Only certain types of metal can hurt us. I just wanted to make sure that the knife wasn't made of one of those metals. Hiro is one of those idiotic types who wouldn't say if he got hurt." She hit Hiro sharply on the head. "And that's for not saying that you got hurt."

"Ouch! Well it wasn't one of those types of metals! And how did you get in here anyway?!" Hiro snapped, glaring at her and standing up.

"I knocked and Naruto let me in. Duh. Whoever got you must have given you a deep wound for it not to be completely healed yet. Anyway, breakfast is on the table, and lunch is in the fridge. I'll be back for dinner." Arisu said, pulling the hood of her cloak up and fixing the mask in place. "See ya!" she yelled, leaping out the window and onto the roof of the next building until she was out of sight.

"Females!" Hiro muttered, clambering out of bed and dragging himself into the kitchen with Naruto bouncing after him. Sitting down at the small table, he grabbed as much food as he could and started shoveling it into his mouth, Naruto copying him. The poor food never stood a chance…

Hiro pushed back from the table after devouring the last bit of sausage. 'Time for a nap..' he thought, closing his eyes. Or at least until the poking started again.

"Hiro, I'm hungwy!!!" Naruto whined, clambering up into Hiro's lap and tugging on his ears.

"Get off!" Hiro yelled, shaking his head until Naruto let go. "And anyway, we just ate."

"But I'm still hungwy!" Naruto insisted, giving the puppy dog look. When that didn't work he started yelling at the top of his lungs into Hiro's ears.

"Alright, shut up all ready you stupid brat!" Hiro yelled slapping his hands over his ears, feeling a massive headache coming on.

Grumbling, he climbed to his feet and started to rummage through random drawers, trying to find food besides their lunch for later. His tails snaked out and grabbed random items, bringing them closer for inspection. After about half an hour of searching, he still hadn't found anything like food.

"Whewe's the food?" Naruto asked him, tugging at his pant leg since that was the highest that he could reach.

"Shut up, I'm looking for it!" Hiro snarled, rummaging through one of the top drawers and drawing out a container. Hiro raised an eyebrow at the cluster of brightly colored things in the container. A quick sniff told him that they were food.

"Here, now shut up brat!" he said, opening the container and shoving one of the things into Naruto's mouth. Shoving the rest of the container into the three-year olds hands, he walked back to his room, fully intending to take a nap to get rid of his now pounding headache.

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Arisu sighed and looked over at the Hokage. _'Borrrring' _ she thought as the Hokage continued to explain how she _must not_ kill anyone in the village unless ordered to. She fought back a yawn as the Hokage finished up his lecture.

"… so you must never kill any villagers without orders from the leader of your squad. Is that clear?" he finished up, giving her a stern glare.

"Crystal." Arisu said, sarcasm dripping from the word.

He looked like he was going to start yelling at her again. Before he could, the door swung open and an ANBU member in a wolf mask slipped through the door.

"This is your new team member." The Hokage said to the wolf-mask guy, glaring at her one more time.

The wolf masked guy turned to look at her, sizing her up. "Well, I guess she'll do…" A lazy voice said from under the mask.

Arisu bristled and drew in his scent, determined to remember his scent so she could find out who he was and repay him for that comment with a few pranks. She was thinking of starting off with putting something in his bed… like a couple jellyfish.

The other member didn't seem to notice, and just motioned for her to follow. Casting one last glare at the Hokage, she turned and followed him out the door. It was gonna be a long day at this rate…

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"I'm back!!!" Arisu yelled, stepping inside Hiro's apartment after finally being allowed to leave her new workmates and pulling off her mask at the same time.

"AAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Arisu yelled as she looked around the apartment, eyes bugging out of her head. Everything was destroyed. The couch had long claw marks running along it, the stuffing oozing out. Everything that was breakable (and a few things that weren't) lay shattered all over the floor. Most of the wallpaper was shredded.

"Wha-" Arisu gasped, looking around wildly. Blood showed on some of the walls, and discarded shurikin and kunai were scattered all over the ground.

"H-Hiro? Naruto?" Arisu called out nervously. It looked like a ninja had attacked the place. A movement in the corner of the room caught her attention. Hiro crawled pitifully out of the corner. His clothes were torn and most of his body looked like someone had dropped a bowling ball on it.

"H-h-he-help." Hiro managed to mutter weakly, raising his head a fraction of an inch to stare at her.

"What happened?! Where's Naruto?!?!" Arisu hissed, looking around for the attacker.

Hiro opened his mouth to answer and suddenly went stiff. "He's coming…" he whispered, fear drenching his voice.

Arisu didn't have time to reply before a small yellow blur shot around the couch and slammed into her stomach. She fell over backward, the wind knocked out of her. Opening her eyes and trying to breathe, she saw a pair of blue eyes hovering inches away from hers.

"HiArisuhowareyouI'mreallyreallyhappyandhavelotsofenergywillyouplaywithmeandwhyisHirolieingdownokgottagoandrunaround!"(Hi Arisu how are you I'm really really happy and have lots of energy will you play with me and why is Hiro lying down ok gotta go and run around!) Naruto yelled before jumping up and sprinting away at high speed and running in circles like was chasing his tail.

Arisu: O.O WHAT?!?!?!

An empty container rolled over and knocked against her hand. Curious, she picked it up, then turned to look at Hiro, eye twitching. "YOU GAVE HIM ALL THAT CANDY?!?!?!" she yelled at him, waving the container in front of his face.

"What's candy?" Hiro asked, his voice muffled as he dropped his head onto the ground with a dull thump.


	10. First Day of School

**Author's Note**

I'm sorry that it's been longer than I planned. I meant to update last week, but I hurt my arm pole vaulting and I had to go to the emergency room.

Good news: It isn't broken like they thought.

Bad news: I can't use it for a month, which is why it took me longer to write the story since I could only type with one hand.

SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! T.T

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As he woke up, Hiro stiffened. Something was wrong. Very wrong. Winter had faded into spring in the time that they had been living in the village, and spring had turned into summer, which was just ending now. Over that time, a schedule had quickly been established.

His day mostly went: Be woken up by Naruto, yell at his kit for waking him up and knock him off the bed, Arisu coming in to tell him to get up or else, yell at her and tell her to get lost, and as soon as she screamed insults right back at him he knew that all was good and right in the world.

But know one had come this morning. He leapt off the bed, tails lashing behind him in agitation, and charged out into the kitchen. As soon as he got in there he saw Naruto eating his breakfast nervously while Arisu fussed over him and put some stuff in a cloth bag, including food.

Hiro looked back and forth between them for a minute. "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?!

Arisu looked up and gave him a withering glare. "It's Naruto's first day of school. I've only been telling you that for the past two weeks!" she said dryly, turning to stick a few more pencils into his backpack.

"…Oh…" Hiro said, silent for another moment before whirling around and stomping into the bathroom to take a shower, sulking.

Naruto snickered at the sight of the sulking demon before turning back to his food and devouring the rest of it in a few gulps.

"All done?" Arisu asked, walking over to take them empty plate from him and dump it in the sink. Naruto nodded, fidgeting nervously in his chair.

"Do you haf to go to work now?" Naruto asked, concentrating to say the 'r' sound right, something that both Hiro and Arisu had been working on with him.

Arisu glanced back from where she was washing dishes to look at him. "Nope, not today. I took the day off so that I could walk you to school with Hiro." She said, turning back to the dishes.

Naruto stared at her back, startled. Even though he was still too young to really understand completely how unusual his caretakers were, he had the feeling that it wouldn't be a good idea if someone saw them walking down the street without their disguise, and it REALLY wouldn't be anywhere near normal for him to show up to school with what looked like two ANBU escorting him.

When he told her that she just looked surprised for a second, then started to laugh. "Hehehe… Naruto.. hehe… we're not going looking like that!"

Naruto gave her a confused look and she picked him up and carried him into the living room, setting him down on the new couch that they had bought after the candy incedent. "Watch." She told him, making a ninja hand-sign. _"Henge Jutsu!" _she yelled, and a puff of smoke covered her for a second.

Naruto's mouth dropped open as the smoke cleared. All of her foxy features a disappeared and had been replaced with different ones. Her hair was now the same color as his, but a couple shades darker, while her eyes were a few shades lighter blue that his. Her fox ears had been replaced with human ones, and there wasn't a tail in sight. Even her gray rabbit fur clothes had been replaced with a purple kimono with flowers embroidered on it.

"Well, what do you think? Normal enough?" Arisu asked, craning around to try and make sure that she had gotten everything.

"H-H-Ho-…..How did you do that?!?!" Naruto shouted, eyes nearly popping out of his head.

"All foxes know how to do that. We're the ones who invented that jutsu! Our ancestors taught your ancestors that jutsu awhile back when they thought that there was some hope for peace between them. Didn't really work out though." Arisu replied, looking surprised that he didn't know this.

"Our ancestors? Don't you mean our older brothers and sisters taught them how to do that? We've been able to do that for generations, but the humans didn't really move in that long ago. Only a couple hundred years ago." Hiro said casually, walking out of the bathroom already in disguise. His hair was sandy blonde and short, while his eyes were a deep green.

"Oh yeah. I'd forgotten that it was so recent. Anyway, off to school!" Arisu said cheerfully, steering Naruto and Hiro out of the apartment.

After about a ten-minute walk they got to the school without anyone seeming to notice that there were demons walking around in broad daylight. The most interesting thing that happened was when a passing villager, a middle-aged women, actually turned to give Naruto a furious glare. Arisu stepped forward and returned the woman's glare with a death glare of her own, while Hiro stepped up to her side to back her up. The woman looked shocked beyond words and quickly scuttled away, and Arisu turned and continued to walk as though nothing had happened.

"Ok Naruto, this is your classroom." Arisu said, pointing to room 101. Hiro slid the door open and they walked into the room, leading Naruto by the hands. The classroom was full of parents and their kids, each of the parents wanting to meet the teacher, a man with a scar across the bridge of his nose and brown hair tied up in a ponytail.

"Hi, I'm Arisu, and this is Hiro. We're Naruto Uzumaki's elder siblings." Arisu said formally, gliding over to meet him while Hiro followed a few feet behind.

"Um… Hi. I'm the teacher for this class, Iruka." Iruka said, looking surprised but still holding out his hand.

Arisu shook his hand lightly, Hiro leaning forward to do the same, studying Iruka closely.

"And this," Arisu said, leaning down and picking up Naruto", is our little brother Naruto."

Hiro raised an eyebrow at the expression on Iruka's face when she presented Naruto to him, but otherwise didn't comment. They stepped to the side to let Iruka greet one of the other parents and Arisu set Naruto down.

"Ok Naruto, we have to go now. Be good and try to make friends with the others here." Arisu said, leaning down to hug him good-bye.

"Don't let anyone push you around either. We'll be here to pick you up at the end of the day." Hiro added, reaching down hesitantly to ruffle Naruto's hair.

Both of them were gone before he could blink. Looking around, Naruto looked for someone to talk to.

"Hey." A voice said behind him. He turned around, startled, to see a boy with brown hair and red fang marks on his face standing behind him. A chubby boy stood behind him, munching on a bag of chips, while another boy looked around lazily. "Hi, I'm Kiba." The first boy said. "And these are Choji and Shikamaru. Who are you?"

Naruto grinned. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" he yelled.

"Well, nice to meet ya. Do you want to come and play with us?" Kiba asked, surprised at his enthusiasm.

"Yeah!" Naruto cheered, dragging his new friends off to play.

About an hour later Iruka made everyone sit down, and then called them forward one at a time to introduce themselves.

"Ok, first up, Sasuke Uchiha." Iruka said, and a small dark haired boy stepped up next to him. "Tell us some stuff about you; your likes, dislikes, dreams, and stuff like that." Iruka said, motioning for him to start talking.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. (1) I like playing and swimming in the river, and I dislike people saying that I should be more like my brother. My dream is to be stronger than him someday." Sasuke said, turning around to go and sit back down.

"Alright, Sakura, you come up now." Iruka said, motioning for a pink-haired girl sitting with her head lowered near the front. She got up slowly and trudged to the front of the room bangs hiding her face and head lowered.

"My name is Sakura. (2) I like flowers, dislike my forehead, and don't really have a dream right now I guess." She mumbled before scooting back into her seat as fast as she could.

Iruka went through everyone else before grudgingly (3) calling Naruto up.

"Hi! I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I like ramen, my brother Hiro and my sister Arisu, and (4) foxes. I don't like mean people or vegetables. My dream is to be the future Hokage and be respected by everyone!" Naruto yelled to the class, grinning.

Iruka gave a muted sigh, getting the feeling that this was going to be a very long year. As soon as Naruto went back to his seat Iruka began to teach them the basics of writing until it was time to go at about noon (5).

As soon as the bell rang, Naruto ran outside, yelling goodbye to the friends that he had made during class and their 15 minute snack break in the middle, Kiba, Choji, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Sakura, Ino, Hinata, and Shino. He burst out the door, waving at Hiro and Arisu, who stood waiting anxiously for him.

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Don't forget, this is before Itachi killed his family and Sasuke became obsessed with training. Right now he's a lot like a normal kid.

Ino hasn't given Sakura the ribbon yet, so Sakura doesn't have a lot of self esteem right now. That doesn't happen till she gets older.

Iruka didn't like Naruto at the start. He blamed Naruto for his parents dieing until he got to know Naruto and realize that he and the demon fox are different.

Since Arisu and Hiro are fox demons, Naruto now likes foxes. (so says the authoress!)

Since their still really young, they only have a half-day of school until they get older.


	11. The Problem With Hinata

After about a month at school, Arisu and Hiro had gotten to know Naruto's friends pretty well. They welcomed Kiba, Sakura, Ino Shikamaru, Shino, Choji, and Sasuke with open arms when they wanted to play in their apartment or go to the park with them, even though they had both seemed alarmed when he first introduced Sasuke to them. For the first couple outings they had watched him very cautiously, keeping a close eye on him, before relaxing a bit. They had even agreed to let Naruto invite his friends over for a sleep over. With just one exception…

They absolutely _hated_ Hinata. The first time that he had introduced her to them along with the rest of his friends Hiro had looked ready to kill her there and then, and even Arisu looked infuriated at the sight of the girl. It hadn't even gotten better over time like it did with Sasuke. If anything, they only seemed to hate her even more. Arisu had even turned around and snarled at the girl once when she had bumped into her legs when Arisu was taking them all to the park.

"Why don't you like her?" Naruto had asked once, confused by their behavior towards the shy girl.

"Because she's a bad person, just like all of her family. They deserve to _die_." Hiro had snapped back, tails lashing with fury and knocking a chair over before starting to list all the ways that they should die.

Arisu slapped a hand over his mouth when he started to slam his fists into things as he spoke and pinning him with her tails. "Naruto, it's not so much that we don't like her as a person, it's just that it would be a lot better if you weren't friends with her." Arisu said more gently, releasing Hiro.

Needless to say, Hiro and Arisu would rather rip their fur off than allow Hinata to stay at the apartment for the sleepover.

"But _why_ can't you let her stay over? What's she ever done?" Naruto protested the night before his birthday and the sleepover during dinner, trying to get answers that made sense. Arisu had already written out all of the invitations for his friends on neat little cards earlier that day.

"Can't you just be satisfied with us telling you to stay away from her?" Hiro asked crabbily, standing up to put his plate in the sink.

"NO. I want to know why you don't like her so much." Naruto snapped back at him stubbornly, refusing to drop the argument.

"Fine then. But you won't like it." Hiro snarled, whirling around to face him. "The reason that we don't like her is because she and all her family are traitors, to your village and to all of us in the Demon Realms. She and the rest of her family are enemies of the kitsune demons. So that means that she's _your_ enemy too. Since we raise you and all."

Naruto stared at him, his mouth slightly open. "Wha-?"

Arisu sighed and stood up. She hopped up to sit on the counter, looking completely undignified for a demoness. "Ok, it's like this." She started, looking uncomfortable. "Do you know about the nine-tailed-fox that attacked your village almost four years ago?"

Naruto nodded, confused. "Yeah, I heard some people saying that it would be four years tomorrow. Is that why so many people don't like me? Because my birthday is on the same day?"

"Um… sure, let's go with that!" Arisu said quickly. "Anyway, do you know why he attacked the village in the first place?"

Naruto shook his head, wondering what would come next.

Arisu's eyes darkened slightly before she continued. "The reason that Kyuubi attacked your village is because someone murdered some of the foxes in his pack. We're are a part of the pack as well."

"… So what does that have to do with Hinata?"

Arisu sighed, dark yellow eyes troubled. "Well, it has to do with her because of what was found long with the bodies of the murdered demons. You see, at first we didn't have a clue who had murdered them. You see, it was a vixen and her kits that were killed. They were all killed right after the vixen had given birth, so they were all incredibly weak. Even a human could have killed them if he or she had been very strong, but we thought that a rouge demon must have done it. Or at least, we thought that until we have the headband."

Naruto gulped, guessing what kind of headband it had been.

"The head band was one of your village headbands. And guess whose putrid scent was all over the headband?" Hiro snarled, leaping to his feet and stalking forward so that his face was only about an inch away from Naruto's.

Naruto flinched back from the hostile glare.

"It was the scent of the Hyuuga Clan, which is the same clan that Hinata belongs too. Kyuubi recognized the scent and ran off before we could stop him. We didn't find out what had happened until a few days later. At first we just assumed that he was mourning somewhere alone. He was the leader of our pack then, so we thought that he might be taking it harder than most. By the time we found out what had happened, it was too late to do anything." Arisu finished, ears tilting back in sadness.

"So that's why she's bad. Her whole family is responsible for what happened to Kyuubi, and for why the villagers hate you so much. They're the reason that the Fourth Hokage died, that all of those ninja died, and that you've grown up alone and without parents. Get it now?" Hiro asked sharply.

Naruto sat still for a few moments, brain working hard. "But… that doesn't make her bad, does it? I mean, the other person is bad 'cause they did that, but Hinata's not bad, is she?"

Kit, her _whole family_ is bad. End of story." Hiro said, stuffing the last bit of food into his mouth that he had snatched from Naruto's plate.

Naruto bent his head so that they could no longer see his eyes. "No. Just cause her family did something doesn't mean that she's bad too." He whispered, looking up with tears brimming in his eyes. "That's just like why the villagers don't like me." That said, tears started to pour slowly down his cheeks. Putting up an arm over his face to try and cover the tears, he leapt down from his seat and ran into his room, slamming the door behind him.

Arisu's ears pricked as the sound of muffled sobs reached her ears from his room, and she gave a whine of distress, sounding like a distraught fox. There were a lot of things that she could stand in the world. She could stand the things that the ANBU were called to take care of, none of which were very pretty. She could stand the sight of bodies of enemies, no matter how horribly they had been killed or how viciously they had been tortured and mutilated, and she could put up with Hiro's bad attitude on most days. Hey, she could even manage to put up with the Hokage attempting to sing along with a song that was playing on the radio (which had happened one morning when she went in to get her assignment for the day. Her ears were still in agony). But the one thing that she COULD NOT stand was her kit crying. That was completely unacceptable.

"Forget it. He'll get over it." Hiro muttered, retreating to his own room next to Naruto's.

Arisu sat at the table until the sobs died away and she could hear Naruto's breathing even out, signifying that he had fallen asleep. Then she slowly rose from the table and gathered up the invitation cards and a pen before walking slowly back to her own apartment next door.

Next Morning

Naruto sat at the table, eating his breakfast in a subdued way. His eyes were still red from crying. Hiro sat across from him, shoveling food into his mouth like everything was normal. Hiro sighed as he heard a knock at the door and scanned its chakra. 'Not another one.' He thought, trudging to the door and opening it. Without even blinking he reached out and crushed the windpipe of the man outside the door, killing him instantly and preventing him from throwing the kunai and shurikin held ready in his hand. "That's the third assassin this morning." He muttered, hefting the body over his shoulder and walking across the apartment to a window. Sliding the window open, he shoved the body through it so that it fell into the street, and shocked cries were heard from below. Hopefully that would help to keep away any others who were looking for revenge against Kyuubi for a bit.

He sat down at the table again just as Arisu walked through the door, invitations stacked neatly in her hands. She set them down in front of Naruto, who looked up at her with sad, watery eyes. Hesitating slightly, she reached into the folds of her ANBU cloak and pulled out another envelope, setting it delicately on top of the others. Naruto craned his head around curiously, reading the name on the card. _Hinata_. He looked up at Arisu in disbelief. She gave him a half smile back. "If she's your friend, then I guess that I can learn to like her. Happy birthday." She murmured to him softly.

Naruto gave a yelp of delight, jumping up and tackle hugging her. She gave a startled laugh as the wind was knocked from her and hugged him back slightly before setting him down..

Hiro gave a disgusted snarl and stalked away, tail bristling.

"Hiro wait-" Arisu said, reaching out and putting a clawed hand on his shoulder. Instantly his chakra spiked viciously, and his body stiffened as he turned to look at her. "**Don't touch me. If you're going to let that piece of traitorous _filth_ in here, I'll be far away. Take my word for it."** He snarled at her in an eerie voice, his orange eyes dark and killing intent coming off of him in waves.

Arisu drew back her hand sharply as though she had been stung, and Naruto watched, trembling in fear from the power and killing intent. Bending down and scooping up Naruto, she kept her gave on Hiro. Naruto held the invitations close to him.

Hiro gave a disgusted snarl and whirled around, stalking out of the apartment. Arisu watched him go with a severely hurt expression on her face.

**Authors Note**

I'm sorry, this was ready on Friday, but my computer went all weird and wouldn't let me acess it. T.T Anyway, here it is. Tell me if you want me to put the sleepover in the next chapter, or if you would rather that I didn't. Thanks for reading!


	12. Chapter 12

**Authors Note**

Whoo, chapter number twelve!

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE NARUTO CHARACTERS!!!!! If I did, you would hear me screaming about how I own them as I ran down every street in the world and told _everyone._

Claimer: I DO own Arisu and Hiro. They are my fluffy foxes, not yours!

Naruto shifted in his seat, staring at the clock. Could it be moving any slower?!?! He felt his eye twitch as he swore that he saw the hand move _backwards._ 'C'mon, c'mon, be time to go already!!!' he shouted in his mind, waiting for the last minute of class to end.

RINGGGGG

"THANK YOU!!!" he yelled jumping out of his seat as the bell sounded overhead and attracting several very weird looks. Ino, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, Shikimaru, Shino, Choji, and Kiba walked over to him, each carrying a small backpack with them. "Let's go." Naruto said, grabbing two of them and charging out the door, leaving the rest to follow.

"Hey, wait up!" Kiba yelled, running after the hyperactive blonde, the others following.

Naruto ignored them and ran outside, looking for Hiro anxiously. He stopped short when he saw Arisu waiting there for him instead, in full human disguise. She smiled and waved at him. Naruto just stared. This wasn't normal. Arisu had to work, so Hiro always picked him up. She had only ever picked him up the first day of school. Naruto walked forward hesitantly, releasing the two that he had been dragging with him, Sasuke and Hinata.

"Hey Naruto." Arisu called, waving to him.

"Hi Arisu. Where's Hiro?" Naruto asked, confused.

A pained look crossed her face for a second before disappearing. "I'm not really sure. He's just gone." She said lightly, her voice strained. "But anyway, let's go." She turned to face the other kids as they approached. "Stay close. There are a couple of nutcases out on the street right now, and I really don't want to have to explain to your parents why you got kidnapped or hurt." That said she turned around and started to walk back to the apartment.

Naruto followed, glancing around cautiously. If there was one thing that he had learned, it was that there were plenty of nutcases in this village. And he had the scars to prove it.

Not looking where he was going, he knocked into Arisu's leg as she stopped dead, nose twitching. The others bumped into him and fell over backwards, dragging Naruto with them into an undignified heap.

"Owww…. What was that for?" Naruto whined, currently being crushed under Sasuke and Ino.

Arisu ignored him for a minute, staring hard at someone. A lazy, gray haired someone…

"Naruto, who is that?" she asked, motioning towards the man.

Naruto craned his head around to see who she was talking about.

"That's Kakashi." Sasuke said, squirming out of the pile. "He stops by my house for dinner sometimes."

Naruto felt a chill shoot down his spine as Arisu got an evil look on her face. That was never a good thing.

'Perfect. I've found the leader of my ANBU squad. Now to make him pay.' She thought, eyes narrowing. "Ok now, let's go!" she said cheerfully to the kids. Her face fell for a second. "Why are all of you on the ground?"

Cue a GIANT sweatdrop from all the kids…

Later

'NO, THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING! HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' Arisu screamed in her mind as Naruto, Sasuke, and Ino ran past her in one direction, the others scattering in opposite directions, screaming. There was a loud yell as Naruto, Ino, and Sasuke launched themselves onto a chair and took flying leaps. Each of them grabbed onto and overhead fan. Kiba ran over and flicked the switch on the wall, turning on the fan, and the three hanging from it became nothing but blurs.

"Augh!!!" Arisu yelped as they all came loose, unable to hang on any longer. She raced forward, and the three landed on her, knocking her flat on her face, before running off to join the others as they viciously destroyed the living room.

She fell to her knees in a defeated position, eye twitching as she watched them destroy everything. 'And they call us demons?! We _never_ cause _this much_ damage!' she thought dryly, wondering if there was any point in trying to stop them. It wasn't that she didn't know how to deal with kids. Most of the time in the Demon Realms, the parents would just randomly walk up to her, hand her their kit, and walk away, saying that they'd be back for them later. No one ever bothered to ask because she would never say no. But even little mini demons were better than these kids! Sure, demons were delinquents at that age too, but when she told them not to do something, they at least had the decency to wait about five minutes before doing it again. That was five minutes of precious time to breath so she would be able to catch them once they started up again. She didn't even get five seconds here!

Most of all, she missed her tails. And why wouldn't she? She could grab five of them at once! A loud crash sounded behind her, and she winced. Oh yes, she missed her tails… A LOT!

"Hey, knock it off! I have something to tell you!" Arisu screamed, jumping up and waving her hands. All of the kids froze, turning to look at her. Arisu gave a forced smile. "Alright, I have to run out for a bit. But don't worry. I'm sending someone to look after you. But you have to keep her a secret." She lowered her voice at the last part, widening her eyes as the kids leaned in to hear the words, lapping it up. No kid at age 4 can resist a secret.

"Ok then, she'll be here in a minute! See ya!!!" she yelled, disappearing in a puff of smoke, something that she had picked up from ANBU.

All eyes turned to Naruto.

"Who do you think it's gonna be?" Ino asked curiously.

"I don't know. She's never had to run out like this…" Naruto said, feeling confused.

Elsewhere

"Hehe… suckers!" Arisu muttered as she climbed back into the apartment through the bedroom window, landing on the bed. She dispelled the genjutsu, leaving her in her humanoid form. Then she narrowed her eyes in concentration, and her body began to shift and move. After a moment a small chibi fox about the size of a kitten was left sitting on the bed.

She leapt onto a chair and looked at herself in the mirror. A dark navy blue fox with silver tipped ears and tails stared back at her, and she grimaced at the size before jumping down. 'Not big enough…' she decided, and started to grow until she was a little bit smaller than a horse. Arisu turned and looked herself over in the mirror briefly before giving a fox impression of a grin. 'Time to go and see what the kits think!' she thought, bounding out into the hallway silently.

Naruto tipped his head to the side in confusion as all of his friends suddenly stiffened, staring at him with eyes as huge as dinner plates. He stared at them for a second before Kiba turned and pointed wordlessly behind him, eyes still huge. Naruto turned around slowly like he had seen people do in the horror movie that Hiro had snuck him into (no, it was NOT age appropriate. He had nightmares for weeks after watching it, while Hiro had just laughed through most of the movies). He spun around with a yelp, eyes nearly bugging out of his head. A fox… a HUGE fox, was standing directly behind him, tails waving behind it in amusement at his reaction.

Naruto cowered close to the ground, and the fox frowned slightly. He tried to meet its eyes as defiantly as possible. His eyes widened even more as he saw the dark yellow color of its eyes. 'Arisu…?' he wondered, breathing slowing down back to a normal rate and relaxing. The fox gave something that looked suspiciously like a grin, then nodded slightly.

Naruto squealed in delight and threw himself at the fox, latching onto one of her ears. Arisu yelped and shook him off, giving a stern glaring before licking her paw and drawing over her now sore ear.

Naruto turned back to his friends grinning. "It's ok! She's really nice. Plus, you get to grab her tails and ears!"

Arisu froze as she heard those words and turned to find all of the kids staring at her with a glint in their eyes that she really didn't like…

Suddenly, all of the kids collapse. Arisu's tails shot straight up in alarm. Tentively, she slowly padded over to them. She nudged Naruto with her paw only to get a snore in return. 'They're… SLEEPING?!?!?! How is that even possible! A moment ago they were destroying everything in sight!' she raged inwardly, tails lashing. She fumed for another minute before, sinking in defeat. In her mind, waking them up would be a lot worse then just having them spontaneously fall asleep…

Grumbling, she picked her way across the room carefully, trying to avoid squashing anyone. Still growling to herself, she picked up all of the blankets that the kids had brought and carried them into the spare bedroom, laying them out on top of a giant inflatable mattress and arranging them with her tails to create a nest. Eyeing her work critically, she gave it a quick nod before turning and trotting back to where everyone was fast asleep. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine… there are nine of them. That means that I'll have to carry them in two trips, she muttered, picking up Sasuke, Sakura, Shino, Kiba, and Ino in her tails and scooping Naruto up carefully with her teeth. Padding back into the guest room, she laid them as carefully as she could onto the blankets before returning for Hinata and Shikimaru.

Her muscles aching, she dragged herself back to the living room and flopped down ungracefully on the rug.

A Few Hours Later…

Lightning flashed across the sky as the thunder roared viciously, the wind howling. Naruto sat bolt upright, staring around with wide eyes, his breaths coming in gasps. He jumped, landing on a very annoyed Sasuke, as the thunder roared again. "I hate storms…" he muttered, shaking, before getting up and running out of the room. He charged into the living room where Arisu was sleeping on the rug and jumped on her, yelping. Said fox gave a disgruntled growl before stretching her head up to look at him. He took opportunity of this and dove under her chin, squirming around until he was nestled safely between her forepaws, only the tip of his nose peeking out. Arisu debated taking him back to the others, then decided against it. She was too TIRED!!!

She let her head flop back onto the floor as Naruto's breathing evened out and his shaking stopped. 'Finally', she thought, 'maybe now I can get some sl- UF!' she thought as three more blurs came shooting out of the bedroom and cannoned into her side. She raised her head again to see Kiba, Sakura, and Sasuke huddled next to her. She sighed and whisked a tail over each of them just as another four bumps were felt and Hinata, Ino, and Shino appeared. All of them crawled onto her side and dragged random tails over themselves, Hinata and Kiba sharing one. Before she could close her eyes or drop her head again, Shikimaru sauntered lazily out of the bedroom, looked around, and then started heading towards them. For some reason that was completely beyond her, the theme music from 'The Pink Panther' began playing in her head as he strolled over to them lazily. Maybe it was the fact that he was wearing bright pink pajamas…? As she shook her head to try and get rid of the music, Shikimaru walked behind her and clambered onto her back before deeming it a suitable place to sleep and promptly doing so.

Her head collapsed back onto the floor as she tried to breathe under the weight of the eight kids sleeping on her. Yep, she was going to have a REALLY sore back tomorrow…


	13. Training

**Authors Note**

WHAAH!!! I am so sorry that it's been awhile. I've been on vacation. O.O No. Computer. At. All!!! But now I am back! T.T The story is nearly coming to an end too. Just a few chapters left, and then maybe an epilogue. Please please please read and review! Reviews are what keep me going and inspire me to write.

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Naruto grunted in pain as he slammed viciously into the ground, rolling in the dirt before coming to an ungraceful halt. He clambered swiftly to his feet, giving a guttural growl as his eyes landed on his enemy. A pair of fierce yellow eyes glared back at him, fangs bared in a snarl.

Naruto dropped into a crouch and charged on all fours. _'I won't lose!'_ he thought, gaining as much speed as he could and closing in fast. He leapt at his enemy, putting chakra into the jump to make it stronger.

Yellows eyes glinted slightly with amusement, and his 'enemy' purred in amusement before raising one of her dark forepaws delicately and gave him a casual smack with it, sending him rolling clumsily off to one side and into a clump of bushes. She purred again as the six year old clambered out of the bushes, grumbling and pulling twigs out of his hair.

"No fair Arisu!" he yelled, stomping over to the horse sized fox grumpily.

Arisu rose from her crouched position. "How is it not fair? And besides, you're the one who asked to be trained in the first place." She replied lightly, shaking her fur out.

The blonde glared at the fox. "But you're biggggeeerrrrrr!" He whined.

"It's not my fault that you're a little pipsqueak." Arisu teased, flicking him with her tails.

Naruto went red and opened his mouth to start yelling. Arisu wrapped one of her tails around his mouth quickly to avoid the headache that all of the yelling would bring. "But hey, if it will make you feel any better, I'll show you some super cool jutsu." She said quickly.

Naruto stopped trying to get away and paused, thinking.

"_Demonic_ jutsu…" Arisu added craftily, eyes widening to make her words even bigger.

"YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Naruto screamed, jumping up and down. "Now! Teach them to me now!"

"Alright, alright. Sheesh, do you eat a gallon of sugar every morning or something when I'm not looking?" Arisu snapped good humouredly, changing back into her half fox form. "Um…" she said, looking around the secluded training field that they were in (a LONG way from the village). "Ok, see that mountain over to the left? The tallest one there?" Arisu asked, motioning to it.

"Yeah. But what about the mountain?" Naruto asked curiously.

Arisu didn't answer, and instead crossed her hands over her chest, one in front of the other and claws pointing out. "_**Fire and Darkness Style: Demon Claws Jutsu!" **_she yelled. Her hands instantly became surrounded with what looked like blistering red fire tinged with black. Uncrossing her hands, she swept one of them towards the mountain like she was clawing the air. Long, glowing, reddish claw marks blazed from her hand, growing in size so that by the time they were a foot away they were as tall as the demoness.

The claw marks blazed towards the mountain, still growing in size, before slamming into it with a deafening roar. The air was instantly blasted with a feeling as though it was being sucked by a vacuum, and suddenly weighed down on Naruto so much that it nearly flattened him.

"What mountain?" Arisu asked casually, turning to look at him with one hand still glowing. She grinned at the look on his face and dispelled the jutsu, the fire fading from her hand.

Naruto stared at the mountain- or what used to be a mountain- in shock. Only ruble and dirt was left now, and huge claw marks spread across the ground from where Arisu stood to where the mountain used to be. "THAT'S SO AWESOME! TEACH IT TO ME!!!" he yelled, running over and tugging on her tails.

"Yow! Let go of my tails!" she yelled, whipping her abused tails out of his reach and glaring. "Listen up, before I can teach you that, you have to master at least two things before it. Those are transforming into fox form and another technique, called 'Chakra Stream'." She told him sternly.

"I can already transform though!" Naruto yelled at her indignantly.

Arisu raised an eyebrow. "Ok then. Show me."

"Right." He muttered, and moved into a crouched position. Focusing, he gathered all of the charka that he could and began to force it to mold his body. He gritted his teeth as he became (much) lower to the ground and felt his face lengthening. It wasn't that transforming like this hurt… it was just really weird feeling. He blinked his eyes open as soon as the sensation disappeared and looked down to see a pair of black paws that changed to orange about half way up. "HAH!" he yelled. "I did it!"

"Yeah, yeah, now hold still so I can show you this next technique. If you can do it, then I'll give you a special treat." Arisu said, trying not to sound too impressed that he had figured out how to transform after only a month of training with her. True, most fox kits were born knowing how to reach a humanoid form, but he was a special exception. She gathered as much charka as she could in her mouth without hurting herself and kicked her foot against a wire, sending hundreds of kunai and shurikin that she had placed flying at them. She blasted the charka out of her moth in a sharp ripple effect.

- -

- -

- -

- -

- -

- chakra -

- -

- -

- - (the farther it goes, the more it spreads out)

Arisu

All of the weapons were scattered harmlessly to one side. Arisu turned to look at him "This is our most common defensive move. You can use it to knock attacks away from you." She explained carefully. "Just be careful that the chakra doesn't burn your mouth." Her eyes narrowed as she paused for a moment. "Even YOU should be able to do this. It requires absolutely zero skill at maintaining and controlling chakra. All that you have to do is gather it and release it. Simple". She finished, reverting back to fox form and turning her back on him to walk away a bit.

(A/N: You DO realize what a HUGE mistake she just made, right? For those who can guess what's about to happen, you will get a cookie.)

Naruto gritted his teeth and began to gather chakra in his mouth. After gathering as much as he could, he blasted the chakra out of his mouth. It went great! With one exception. He had forgotten to look at where he was firing the energy at. And Arisu happened to be in front of him….

"PUT IT OUT!!! Putitoutputitoutputitout!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed, running around in frantic circle with smoke rising from her now on fire tails.

(A/N::handing out cookies to those who guessed it::)

"Sorry, sorry, my bad!" Naruto yelled, running after her with a bucket of water.

One hour, 37 buckets of water, and one very soaked fox later…

"pant pant… Okay… pant… since you seem… pant… to have gotten that… pant… down, I guess that I'll take you to the Demon Realms to meet some people there." Arisu gasped, bent over with her hands on her knees and tails still smoking slightly.

Naruto got an evil glint in his eyes. Ah, the Demon Realms. So many tails and ears to pull there, so little time…

Arisu (sadly for the sake of all demons that existed and were to come) didn't notice. "Ok, let's go then." She said cheerfully, happy to be going home for a bit, and removed a familiar red stone. "Demon Realms!!!" she sang out cheerfully in a sing song voice, before they both disappeared in a bright flash.

Naruto, being the true and cunning genius that he is, immediately spotted a _bit_ of a problem when they reappeared. Just a bit of a problem though! They were in the air. Very high up in the air. As in, he could see a couple clouds floating about 100 feet below him. And there were what seemed to be a bunch of very shop rocks on the ground wwwaaaaayyyyy below him…

"ARISUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he screamed at her as they plummeted.


	14. Chapter 14

"ARISUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he screamed at her as they plummeted.

Arisu, being the mature and responsible fox demon that she was, gave the only rational response possible.

"WHEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!" she yelled, her arms up like she was on a roller coaster while Naruto clung to her back for dear life.

With a muffled thump they landed on… something. From where he was, it looked like a giant owl…

"MWUAHAHA!!!! Fly my pretty, fly! On my minions!!!" Arisu yelled while laughing maniacally, nearly ripping out a few feathers.

The owl turned its head around to stare at her. "Shut up or I'm dropping you right here Arisu." It hissed at her.

"NNNNOOOOO!!! Don't do that! If you drop her, then I'll fall off too!!!" Naruto wailed, clinging desperately to the owls back.

The owl stared. "And wwwhhhoooo are you? A snack that furball-chan decided to bring with her??"

"Who are you calling furball featherbrain?!?!" She yelled at the bird, reaching up to thump it on the head. "And no, he's not a snack." She reached out and snatched up Naruto possessively, huggling him to her chest, not noticing him starting to turn blue. "Mine." She growled, tightening her grip. "Not yours. MINE. NO TOUCHY!!! Mine mine mine."

"Hm, whatever." The owl muttered turning frontward. "But just so that you know, you're suffocating him."

Arisu glanced down to see him turning blue and released him, wailing an apology.

The owl dropped off Arisu and a still gasping Naruto off in an endless, rolling green hilly landscape.

As soon as the owl took off, Naruto was struck by the unnatural silence that surrounded them.

"AIKA!!!!!!!!!! GET YOUR FURRY SELF OVER HERE!" Arisu shouted at the top of her lungs, knocking Naruto over flat. " ……… WELL?!?!?! WHERE ARE YOU?! DON'T MAKE ME OPEN UP A CAN OF FOX-WHOOP ON YOUR SORRY HIDE!!!!" She screeched, looking around as Naruto sat up shakily.

"What was that? Some kind of attack…? He asked, eyes glazed over and a weird ringing in his ears.

"Huh?" she said, turning back to him. "Oh, naw, that wasn't an attack. I was just telling my friend that we were here."

Naruto was about to point out that his ears were bleeding when Arisu began hopping up and down, pointing to a random dust cloud.

"There she is!" she yelped as the cloud approached and skidded to a stop in front of them. The dust cleared to reveal a very pale green fox with yellow eyes, red tipped ears, and five red tipped tails. It was about as tall as Arisu, and a clone mini version of it stopped and sat down next to the big one.

"Hi Aika!" Arisu shouted cheerfully to the biggest one. "Long time no see!" She bent down to look the mini version in the eye. "And hello to you too Chiyo."

"Hey Arisu. Could you have yelled _any louder_?" Aika asked dryly, sitting down and wrapping her tails around her. "And who's this?" she added, spotting Naruto. A huge grin appeared on her face. "You never mentioned that you had a kit. And apparently he's an early developer since he seems to have changed to colors to the exact opposite of yours. So who's the father? Hiro?"

"OH MY GOD NNNNNOOOOO!!!" Arisu shouted, jumping up with a revolted look on her face. "No no no no no! We are not related. I was assigned to watch after Naruto by the council! I'm too young to have a kit in the first place! And no way Hiro would be the father! He left over a year ago and came back here anyway. "

"Ok, ok, cool it. Just a question." Aika muttered.

"Change my colors…?" Naruto asked, confused.

"Yeah, when all demon foxes are born, they look exactly like their parents. That changes when they get older. Like my kit, Chiyo, is about your age, but it'll still be a couple months before she gets a look of her own. Until then, she'll look exactly like me." Aika explained patiently, while Chiyo looked at him curiously.

"And what do you mean Hiro left and came back here? He hasn't been here since the last time I saw you!" Aika added, frowning.

Arisu froze. "Well, he got mad and left us. Where else could he be?"

Aika shrugged. "No clue. Anyway, what are you here for?"

"I was wondering if you just wanted to hang out for a bit."

"In other words, you want help watching after Naruto, right?"

"…"

"I'll take that as a yes. Sure why not. Chiyo, say hi."

Naruto fell over backwards and landed on his butt as a small (by fox standards) furry bundle catapulted into him.

"Hiya!" she yipped, nudging him with her nose.

"um… hi?" Naruto squeaked uncertainly.

"My name is Chiyo. Wanna play tag?" she asked cheerfully.

"You know how to play tag?" he asked, surprised.

She gave him a very weird look. "Of course! Why wouldn't I?"

Before Naruto could explain that he didn't normally think of demons playing tag (more like a somewhat destructive game) Chiyo interrupted him. "So do you wanna play?" and then proceeded to pounce on him, jab him in the ribs with her paw, and then run off yelling "You're it!"

"Get back here!" Naruto yelled, running after her as Arisu and Aika settled down a little bit away and started chatting.

After about an hour of running around, Naruto and Chiyo both dragged themselves over and plopped down next to their respective caretaker/ parent. They were silent for a minute. You know how those moments never quite last, right?

Chiyo reached over and jabbed Naruto gently. "Poke."

Naruto reached over and jabbed her back. "Poke."

"Poke."

"Poke."

"Poke."

"Poke."

"Poke."

"Poke."

Now, at this point, Arisu and Aika developed a twitch. So now it went like this.

"Poke." ::twitch twitch::

"Poke." ::twitch twitch::

"Poke." ::twitch twitch:

"Poke." ::twitch twitch::

"Poke." ::twitch twitch::

"Poke." ::twitch twitch::

"Poke." ::twitch twitch::

"……………" (Cue relieved sighs)

"Poke!"

"WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP?!?!?!" Arisu roared.

"…"

"…"

"POKE!"

Arisu began crying and beating her head against the ground. Aika patted her on the back sympathetically.

End of day

"Well, it was nice seeing you again." Aika said cheerfully, waving slightly to Arisu and Naruto.

"Same." Arisu murmured.

"Bye!" Naruto yelled as the stone started to glow. "Oh, and Chiyo? When you pick a color, you should be _ORANGE_!"

"NO!!!!!" Arisu and Aika yelled as the light dragged Naruto and Arisu back to the village.

back in the village

"Hm… Ok, we're back," Arisu announced as they walked past the park on the way home. "I just have to go and tell the old geezer that we're back. Can you get home on your own, or do you want me to walk you there?"

"Hey, I'm not a baby! I can get there just fine. Believe it!" he shouted at her cheerfully.

"Ok then. See you in a bit." She said with a wave before teleporting away with a poof of smoke.

Naruto grinned and started to jog home, dodging random people on the street. A smell hit his nose and he stopped in front of the bakery. 'Maybe Arisu will buy me one of those cakes?' he thought, staring in the window longingly.

"Hey _demon brat_." A voice said behind him, and before he could turn around a heavy burlap sack was thrown over his head.

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Next time…

"**My kit! **_**WHERE IS MY KIT?!?!**_** … YOU TRAITOROUS HUMANS! **_**I'LL DESTROY YOU ALL!!!  
**_

Arisu is ticked… and what's this?! Hiro returns! Stay tuned…


	15. Question?

I know that I should have asked this in the last chapter, but I forgot… so I'm asking you now!!!

Do you want a sequel?

If you do, do you want any pairings?

If you want pairings, are there any in particular that you want? (I have a vague idea, but I want to put it in if a lot of people want it…)

_**ALSO!!!!!!!!!!!!! **_ _In the next chapter there will be reviewer awards!!! So look to see what _

_award you get!_


	16. The end or a new beginning

AN: slinks in Um…hi? is pelted with random objects I'm sorry it's been so long!! But I DO have a reason. My computer died. And I mean REALLY DIED. As in, all memory wiped out, had to get a whole new computer and pc, it EXPLODED died. So, I had almost the whole thing written, and it died. Then it took a while to get a new one and the get whole thing had to be retyped. Once again, I AM SO SORRY!!!!!!!!!!! For those of you who like comedies, read one of my two new stories, Gaara's Gourd Through the Seasons (which my friends swear would get me killed if he ever read it) or The Frog Prince… Or Not.

**Reviewer Awards!!!**

Welcome one and all to the reviewer awards!!! These awards will be applauded and commented on by the Naruto cast, who I don't own! makes Naruto characters appear

Zahariu Uzumaki- The** politest reviewer award!!!**

Naruto characters in tuxes and ballroom gowns applaud politely

Sasuke: … WHY AM I IN A DRESS?!?!

Naruto: Technically, it's called a gown.

cheza'flower'silver'wolf- **The shyest reviewer award!!!**

Hinata: YEAH!!! GO YYYYOOOUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone else: O.o

Uchiha-Itachi-3434- **The most emo review!!!**

Sasuke:… cool…

ironhide11- **The helped me choose the rating award!!!**

Everyone: claps

Sakura: Yay you for helping!!!

Yami Kitsune Mitsua-**The helped me choose the pairing idea Award**

Naruto: O.O Oooh, what is it?!?!

Everyone: leans in

Me: It's…

Everyone: YES?!?!

Me: Well, if you wanna know, just look at the review!!!

enfant d'automne- **The**** most loving award!!!**

Mini Naruto characters- We love you too!!! glomps

kitsunegyrl- **Most comedy loving reviewer!!!**

Naruto- You rock!!!

EvilNaruto15- **Told me the name of the ANBU award!!!**

Random ANBU- applaud then disappear in a puff of smoke

Everyone else: O.o How do they do that?!?!

Rixas- **Most into karma reviewer!!!**

Shikimaru:… shockingly untroublesome…

Copper Hikari: **The coveted first reviewer award!!!**

Everyone: applauds and screams wildly

And now, on with the story!!!

Arisu jogged casually towards the Hokage Tower, ANBU outfit wrapped around herself firmly.

_'Hm… what to make for dinner tonight?'_ She mused as she jumped over random people and buildings in her way.

'_I wonder how much he would freak out if I tried to feed him opossum…'_ She snickered mentally at the thought as she jumped through the Hokage's window, scattering all of the neatly stacked papers on his desk.

Said Hoakge squawked indignantly as the finally completed paperwork was scattered around the room.

"Arisu!" he yelled, shaking his fist at her.

"Threaten me and I'll reveal photo's of you reading Icha Icha Paradise to the village," she said absently, her mind still focused on dinner.

The Hokage's mouth clicked shut with an audible snap and her glared at her menacingly.

"Anyway, just wanted to tell you that we're back." Arisu said before jumping back out the window, leaving a disgruntled Hokage to clean up the whirlwind of papers left behind.

"Why can't you just use the door like everyone else?!" he yelled after her.

"You're secretary creeps me out! She never stops smiling!" she yelled back before disappearing.

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Arisu catapulted herself over buildings as she raced home, anxious to make sure Naruto had gotten there safe and sound.

Suddenly, a scent hit her nose, and a very familiar one at that… _blood_. She jumped down from the building, landing in front of a pastry shop. She leaned down to smell the blood under the pretense of looking closer at the tiny puddle of blood.

As the scent penetrated her nose, her whole body stiffened and her eyes widened in terror.

_'No… God no, please, NO!!!'_ she thought desperately as she desperately took in the scent again. Yes, there was no mistaking it. It was… _'Naruto's blood…'_ she thought hazily, staggering slightly as she took it in. She could feel her demon blood starting to take over and cloud her mind.

_'My kit… HIS BLOOD… danger. Help. Must help. Must __protect__'_ She thought dizzily staggering to her feet swiftly. Something smacked against her leg, and she looked down to see what it was, head spinning. A note…

Open the note…

_ You'll never see him again. We'll kill him and purge this village of the demon._

And with that, the demon blood came to a boil and all logical thoughts went out the door.

_'They hurt him! Kill them! Kill them all. KILL THEM ALL. PAY. PAY!!! DESTROY THEM. KIT HURT. HURT!! __**MY KIT HURT!!!**__' _

Arisu lifted her head to the sky and gave an eerie howl, the scream echoing off the buildings as everyone froze, turning to look at the still figure. The cloak slowly slipped off if it, revealing the fox ears pressed flat against dark blue hair. Then five lashing blue tail came into view, the fur along the spines bristling. Finally, as the mask slipped of its face, a pair of yellow eyes glowing with an ominous red light, a mouth twisted in a grimace of rage and hatred…

Not even a baby cried as the figure turned slowly to face the crowd, its head lowered. A few seconds passed before the prone figure raised its head slowly, eyes glittering coldly, the look a predator gives its prey just before it kills them.

**"I'm gonna kill you," **she growled softly, her voice carrying across the street perfectly, the words twisting themselves around the stunned villagers.

A spike of fear.

A flash of light.

Screams.

A massive fox towered above the village, its tails lashing, the sun setting behind it, painting the sky with blood, just like how the village would soon be painted. Pain seemed to flood every villagers mind.

Suddenly, the once silent fox gave voice to its pain. "**My kit! **_**WHERE IS MY KIT?!?!**_** … YOU TRAITOROUS HUMANS! **_**I'LL DESTROY YOU ALL!!!**__** GAUOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"**_

A tail swung down, and blood sprayed into the air, drenching the foxes tail as agonized screams told her she had hit some of them. The blood dripped steadily from her tail onto the village below, appearing to almost be raining blood.

Screams rose up from the village, crying for help, for mercy, for anything to save themselves. Arisu snarled angrily, and nearby building burst into flame, their inferno reaching toward the sky, raging, snarling, reflecting the fox's feelings. Was any mercy ever shown to her kit?! Why give them something they had never given? Wait… he had friends. Can't kill those. Her nose told her exactly where they were, and she noted not to hit around there.

One scream rose above all the rest of the villagers. "Wait. Wait! I know where he is!"

Yellow eyes narrowed sharply and a tail shot out, wrapping around the human that had spoken out and pulling her up so she could look the woman in the eye.

_**"WHERE?"**_

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto sniffled and thrashed around clumsily. He couldn't see, couldn't hear anything, and was stuffed into a bag. And worse of all, whatever idiot was carrying him kept bumping into things!!!

"Not much longer now demon brat," a voice snarled at him as he was slammed into something again, earning a yelp. A wispy laugh from a second person echoed dully.

"C'mere," the rough voice grunted, and a hand wrapped harshly around his neck as he was wrenched from the bag. Spots of color exploded in front of his eyes as a fist slammed into his head. Tugging sensations came from his wrists and ankles. The spots gradually faded out of his, and he could see shadows waving in and out of his vision.

Trees…

The forest.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Th-the f-forest," the woman stammered fearfully, shuddering under the enraged vixens stare. "I saw them take him to the forest."

A low growl floated across the village. Arisu simply dropped the now squealing women. Her eyes narrowed in on the forest, and she adjusted her size to that of about twice the size of a horse. Small enough to track, yet big enough to make anyone think twice about messing with her.

In a flash she was off and running towards the forest, her nose in the air, following Naruto's scent. Trees flashed past in a blur as the wind whistled around her ears in the dusk- almost night- air.

A dark gray shadow detached itself from the rest and bounded over to her side, looking almost like her shadow.

Dark yellow eyes snapped over at the newcomer. _"Hiro,"_ she mused silently, meeting his orange eyes accusingly.

Hiro…

At any other time, she would box his ears. But as it was… he could help_… he could help get their kit back._

They darted through the forest, eyes scanning the trees.

A howl echoed over the forest.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto struggled desperately against the ropes binding him to the tree as the man began taking out various item from another bag the woman had been carrying. Kunai, shurikin, senbon needles, a katanna…

Hid breath started to come in gasps as his eyes darkened in fear. He felt something snap. He did the only thing he could think of. He howled like a fox.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arisu's head snapped up at the sound of the howl, and she instantly changed directions, heading for the sound. Hiro charged at her side, a snarl forming on his lips at the sound of the frightened howl.

They exploded into the clearing, snarling viciously. Arisu gave a desperate howl when she saw Naruto tied to the tree, and she darted over to him. Hiro placed himself between Arisu and Naruto, snarling wrathfully, eyes daring the two humans to get any closer.

They hesitated, eyeing the enraged foxes fearfully. Arisu slashed at the ropes binding Naruto, freeing him. He hit the ground crouched on all fours, eyes wide, then raced over to Arisu's side, whimpering.

Her eyes snapped up to the two cowering humans, hate glowing in her eyes. Now she was torn. Comfort her kit? Or destroy the two humans who dared to harm him?

Hiro made the decision for her, throwing himself on the humans and grabbing them by the throats. He didn't let go until their shrieks had faded and the light died from their eyes.

Arisu gathered Naruto close and began licking his face gently to calm him. Eventually, his whimpers faded, and she moved on to wash the only wound on him, a long gash on his arm that was still bleeding sluggishly, leaving a thin trail of blood dripping down his arm. Arisu rasped her tongue delicately over it cut, and the wound began to heal after a moment. She stopped when the wound was half healed and looked up at Hiro, blinking gratefully, before her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Her body shifted back into humanoid form, and Hiro followed suit.

Arisu shifted Naruto into her arms more securely before speaking. "What are you doing here? And where did you go? Aika said you hadn't been home."

He paused a moment before answering. "I never left. I just stayed in the woods nearby, making sure that you two were safe."

Arisu stared at him.

""Look, I'm sorry that I overreacted, and I'm sorry that I made him cry, and I'm sorry that I snapped at you, but I want to come back," he finished in a rush.

Arisu burst out laughing. "Hahahaha!!!"

"What?!" Hiro snapped.

"Ahaha… when haha.. when you were saying sorry, you looked like you swallowed a lemon!" Arisu howled in between gasps, laughing hysterically.

"Right…" Hiro muttered as her insane laughter subsided.

"ARISU!!!" a voice yelled, causing the two demons heads to shoot up.

The Hokage and a squad of ANBU landed next to them. Two of the ANBU instantly strode over to the two bodies and disappeared with them in a poof.

"Is he ok?!" the Hokage asked her desperately, craning to try and see Naruto.

"He's fine," she replied, eying the Hokage warily.

Relief shone on the old man's face, and her eyes softened.

"Thank Kami!" he breathed, reaching out to pet Naruto on the head.

Naruto saw the hand coming and gave a fearful wail. Chakra raced to his teeth, elongating them, and he sank them into the man's hand.

The Hokage gave a strangled yell and quickly jerked his hand away, staring disbelievingly at Naruto as he burrowed deeper into the safety of the female fox demon's arms.

Arisu's eyes widened in shock. "Naruto…?" she asked slowly, uncertainly. Scared blue eyes peered up at her.

"Don't let the humans take me, don't let them hurt me," Naruto pleaded softly, plaintively. "I'll be a good kit, I promise!" he whimpered softly, desperation entering his voice.

"It's ok Naruto. It's ok." Arisu said slowly, rocking him gently as they started back to the village.

(AN: For those of you who don't get it, Naruto now thinks that he's a demon and is afraid of humans. He called himself a 'kit')

Title of the next story: A Fox's Heart


	17. Announcement

The new story is out! It's called "A Fox's Heart'.


End file.
